A HONG KONG-based conglomerate has agreed to sell its controlling stake in a subsidiary that operates ports near the Panama Canal to a consortium including BlackRock.

The deal, struck on Tuesday, would effectively place the ports under the control of the United States after President Donald Trump alleged Chinese interference with operations on the critical shipping lane.

CK Hutchison Holding said it would sell all shares in Hutchison Port Holdings and Hutchison Port Group Holdings to the consortium, in a deal valued at nearly $23 billion (£18bn), including $5bn (around £4bn) in debt.

The deal will give the BlackRock consortium control over 43 ports in 23 countries, including the ports of Balboa and Cristobal, located at either end of the canal. Other ports are in Mexico, the Netherlands, Egypt, Australia, Pakistan and elsewhere.

The transaction, which must be approved by Panama’s government, does not include any interest in a trust that operates ports in Hong Kong, Shenzhen and south China, or any other ports in the country.

Some 70 per cent of the sea traffic that crosses the Panama Canal leaves or goes to US ports. 

The US built the canal in the early 1900s as it looked for ways to facilitate the transit of commercial and military vessels between its coasts. 

Washington relinquished control of the waterway to Panama on December 31 1999, under a treaty signed in 1977 by president Jimmy Carter. 

President Trump has claimed that Mr Carter “foolishly” gave the canal away, has complained about the passage fees that ships are charged and maintains that China has been operating the waterway.

In January, US Senator Ted Cruz, Republican chair of the Senate committee on commerce, science and transportation, raised concerns that China could exploit or block passage through the canal and that the ports “give China ready observation posts” to take action. 

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Panama in early February and told President Jose Raul Mulino that Panama had to reduce Chinese influence over the canal or face potential retaliation.

President Mulino rejected the accusation that China had any control over canal operations.

Frank Sixt, co-managing director of CK Hutchison, said the transaction was ‘the result of a rapid, discrete but competitive process in which numerous bids and expressions of interest were received.

“I would like to stress that the transaction is purely commercial in nature and wholly unrelated to recent political news reports concerning the Panama ports.”